Manchester City needed a win to keep the Premier League race alive but settled for a 1-1 draw with Bournemouth on Tuesday, a result that handed the title to Arsenal. Eli Junior Kroupi curled home in the 39th minute to put Bournemouth ahead. City pressed after the interval but could not find the end product required. Erling Haaland scored deep into stoppage time, but the goal proved only a consolation.

Pep Guardiola’s side finished four points behind league leaders Arsenal with one game remaining. Reports emerged before the match that Guardiola is on his way out at the end of the season after a decade in charge. The manager has already won six league titles with City, and this season his team also lifted the Carabao Cup and FA Cup, but Tuesday’s draw will leave a stain on the final campaign.

The performance was criticised for lacking urgency and for being one-dimensional, even when two goals were required to keep the title race alive. Guardiola was animated on the touchline and in the technical area as the seconds ticked down.

Individual ratings reflected a mixed display. Rodri was one of the few to emerge with credit, rated 8.3: “Bossed the game from the midfield, hit the woodwork and had 112 touches, the most in the game.” Gianluigi Donnarumma received a 7.0 and needed the woodwork to help keep Bournemouth to one goal. Erling Haaland was marked 7.9 for his stoppage-time strike after a quiet first half. Matheus Nunes (7.3) and Abdukodir Khusanov (6.9) struggled at different stages; Khusanov was described as being caught in no man’s land for the opener. Several substitutes made brief impacts: Savinho (7.0) won all his duels, Phil Foden (6.4) kept play alive for Haaland’s eventual strike, while others saw limited minutes.

The match statistics underlined a close game. Bournemouth had 45% possession to City’s 55%. Expected goals were Bournemouth 1.99, Man City 1.67. Total shots were 10 for Bournemouth and 14 for City, with shots on target 2 and 5 respectively. Big chances favored Bournemouth 3-1, passing accuracy was 80% for Bournemouth and 87% for City, and fouls committed were 16 to 7.

Pep Guardiola’s decision to leave Manchester City after a decade will force a recalculation across the game. His time at the Etihad has seen City dominate English soccer; the club later became the first in England to win four league titles in a row, and Guardiola’s 2022–23 treble matched Manchester United’s 1998–99 success.

This season, widely reported to be his last before City appoint former assistant coach and ex-Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca, Guardiola has already delivered a domestic cup double. It could become a domestic treble if they can snatch the Premier League title from Arsenal.

Guardiola has previously spoken of a desire to manage a national team. “In our lives we have dreams of what we’d like to do in the future, but it doesn’t mean it’s going to happen,” Guardiola said at the time. “I would like to play a World Cup and a European Championship. I would like to live that situation. When I see the World Cup, I think I would like to be there. I had just one chance to do it as a player [in 1994]. In eight, 12, 14 years maybe it could happen. It’s just a dream I have as a manager and a person. Maybe it happens, maybe it doesn’t.” He was more cautious in 2024: “What I’m not going to do is leave Manchester City and go to another country. I wouldn’t have the energy to do so.” When asked specifically about Spain eight years ago he said he thought it was “not going to happen,” so that option remains uncertain.

Club and national options line up differently. Paris Saint-Germain could be possible if Luis Enrique moves on; Enrique has ended PSG’s Champions League hoodoo and Guardiola would have the chance to become the first manager to win the European Cup with three clubs, having already won it with two alongside Enrique, Jupp Heynckes, Ottmar Hitzfeld, Ernst Happel, José Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti.

Spain would be the most obvious national role given his playing history of 47 caps and captaining Spain to Olympic gold in 1992. Italy presents another attractive project after missing a third straight World Cup in 2026; Guardiola also played for Brescia and Roma. England is plausible in the longer term while Thomas Tuchel’s contract runs to after Euro 2028. Mexico, where El Tri have endured seven round-of-16 exits in the last eight tournaments and have not reached a quarterfinal in 40 years, is another option; Javier Aguirre is currently in his third spell. The United Arab Emirates could offer a developmental brief: the country has not reached a World Cup since 1990 and missed chances to qualify for 2026 against Qatar and Iraq.

Finally, Guardiola has shown he values time away from the game. When burnt out at Barcelona he took a year-long sabbatical living on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and said he loved having a relatively normal life away from Europe’s spotlight.

The Premier League has named six nominees for the 2025–26 Manager of the Season award, and this season’s list highlights different definitions of managerial success. Past winners have not always taken home the title: George Burley, Alan Pardew, Harry Redknapp and Tony Pulis were recognised for achievements that went beyond silverware.

Pep Guardiola has overseen the start of a Manchester City rebuild this season. City are guaranteed to finish no lower than second and could even end the campaign with a seventh Premier League title. Yet there is a sense this season is constrained by the club’s recent standards, and that this City team might have been left behind by some of the competition they faced over the past decade. For most clubs, second place would be a major success. For Guardiola it is judged against far higher expectations.

Régis Le Bris has delivered a remarkable return to the top flight for Sunderland. In the club’s first season as a Premier League side in eight years they were never remotely in danger of relegation. Defensive organisation has been central to that progress, with Sunderland losing only one game more than Liverpool. They only need to match Newcastle United’s results over the next two games to finish above their fiercest rivals, and a top-half finish, which the club has not achieved since 2010–11, remains within reach.

Mikel Arteta is on the verge of ending Arsenal’s longest wait between league championships since the club clinched its first in 1931. If the Gunners hold on, it breaks a long period of underachievement. Aesthetically the season has not always been convincing and there is an element of sourness to how it has unfolded. If Arsenal win both remaining fixtures, it would register as the fourth-lowest points tally for a Premier League champion in the 22 years since the club’s previous title.

Brentford faced major departures in the summer after losing Thomas Frank and leading scorers Bryan Mbeumo and Yoana Wissa, who racked up 39 Premier League goals between them last season. Keith Andrews, in his first season as manager and a former assistant coach, has guided the Bees to their highest ever league placing and left European qualification a realistic possibility.